


As You Wish

by BlueClue182



Series: February Fluff Challenge [4]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Princess Bride References, The L Word like...love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-13 21:30:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13579299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlueClue182/pseuds/BlueClue182
Summary: SAYING I LOVE YOU IS REALLY HARD OKAYIt's easier to say stuff you picked up in fantasy books.Prompt: "I think I love you."





	As You Wish

**Author's Note:**

> February fluff continues! This one is not beta'ed.  
> I make no apologies for the really easy Princess Bride references. Also the book came out in the 70s so it's definitely allowed for El to find and then obsess over it.

The snow outside fell in thick puffs. School was good, El decided, but winter break was even better. During winter break, she got to spend entire days snuggled up next to Mike in a quilt. Nancy was ‘watching the kids’ while Karen spent some time at their Aunt’s house. The divorce wasn’t going to be finalized until next year, they’d decided, but Ted wasted no time moving out.

El wasn’t sure if Mike was more upset about his dad leaving, or the fact that he’d taken the La-Z-Boy with him. For the most part, they avoided the subject all together.

Instead, they worked on new campaigns together, or Max taught El to skateboard, or they went on day trips to the movies or the burger place, or the arcade…sometimes chaperoned, and sometimes not. 

Today was an alone, unchaperoned day. And as fourteen-year-olds with a particular fondness for kissing each other go, they were remarkably well behaved. El leaned against Mike, who was playing his Atari. She was completely buried in the paperback copy of The Princess Bride she had pressed against her knees. Once she learned to read, she’d become voracious about the habit, quickly burning through the weak selection at the cabin and even more quickly through the handful of books Will kept above his bed.  The first time Mike took her to the library, she’d nearly lost her mind. 

Something about this book specifically kept her coming back, and it was the only book she took out for all of winter break. The way Buttercup suffered after thinking Westley was gone forever, the way he risked life and limb to return for her, friends who acted like family, and the most perfect kiss in history--it was painfully familiar. It was the first book she read more than once. 

“Oh, COME ON!” Mike startled her out of her magical fantasy world by shouting at his game and throwing the controller to the ground. “This game is bullshit.” El patted his knee and hummed in agreement, trying to find her place again. “I’m gonna go get a soda, do you want anything?” She shook her head and dove back in to her book.

Buttercup and Westley were so much like her and Mike, except that she never had to promise to marry an evil Prince. And she didn’t have to wait for rescue. Neither of them did. The Princess and her Pirate King. That sounded kind of nice. But the couple on the page said things to each other that she and Mike did not—things about love. Although they also didn’t call each other boyfriend and girlfriend, either. Were they the same?

Mike came thudding down the stairs, all limbs, and sat back down next to Eleven. She closed the book around her finger.

“Mike?”

“Yeah?” He cracked his soda open.

“Are we in love?” He lowered the soda slowly from his mouth. He swallowed even more slowly.

“I…think so? It’s kind of a big question.”

“Why?”

 “There are different kinds of love. I don’t know how to explain them _all_ , but I’ll give it a shot.” He turned towards her. “There’s love for your family, like me and Nancy and Mom and Holly and my _Dad_. You love each other pretty much because you’re related, and you’re supposed to. Then there’s love for your friends, like how Steve loves all of us, and everyone in the Party cares about each other. We keep our promises and watch out for each other by _choice_. And then there’s like, romantic love, and that’s the one you’re talking about. Like Buttercup and Westley.  And that’s special because it comes with…kissing. And dating. And getting married, sometimes. But even those three kinds have more layers than that. Does that…all make sense?”

“I think so.”

“It’s okay if it doesn’t. It’s a big deal to say to someone in the ‘romantic’ way because it’s more serious than friend love, it’s like…you’d pick that one person even over the rest of your friends, if you had to.” Eleven chewed on the inside of her cheek.

“So, did you kiss me because of love?”

“See, that’s where it gets even MORE complicated because, the short answer is yes, but the longer answer is only sort of. I liked you so much, but I’d only known you, what, a week? It’s hard to tell for real if you love someone after only a week. And especially when you’re twelve. And Nancy says it’s still hard when you’re 18. And if my parents could split up, then I guess it’s never really EASY. When you say it, it’s supposed to be forever, but…” Mike shrugged.

“Hmmm. That’s a lot to think about.”

Mike laughed a little and took a drink from his soda. “Yeah it is. It’s hard to tell. And you don’t want to say it to someone too early because then if something changes, it can hurt your feelings even worse—both for the person that said it, and the person it was said _to._ And I’ve wanted to say it to you before because I definitely pick you over the rest of the Party and I’m pretty sure everyone knows that.”

“uhuh.” El put her book down on the ground next to her. Serious thinking time. Mike put his soda down and took her hands instead.

“So maybe…maybe I think I love you.” El’s eyes went wide. “Unless you think that’s too much then—” She cut him off by leaning in for a kiss. They smiled at each other.

“I think I love you, too.” She squeezed his hands, then let them go. “Now, can I get back to reading?” 

He reached around her and handed her the book again. “As you wish.”


End file.
